


Lost at Sea

by stuffandsundry



Series: Suit of Swords, Suit of Cups [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, POV Second Person, spoilers for seventh palace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 11:58:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11851104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuffandsundry/pseuds/stuffandsundry
Summary: A Phantom Thieves meeting is called after the seventh Palace is cleared. Nobody is happy with what's discussed.





	Lost at Sea

Your phone vibrates the morning after the Phantom Thieves successfully take Masayoshi Shido’s treasure. You blearily swipe it open to see who it is.

 Ah, it’s Makoto.

 

> I know that this may be an odd request,
> 
> but would it be possible for you to call a Phantom Thieves meeting today?
> 
> There are some things that I think we need to talk about regarding Shido’s palace.
> 
> I understand that you are doubtlessly very tired from yesterday but…
> 
> I talked to my sister yesterday.
> 
> There’s something I think we need to discuss as a group as soon as possible.

**> >Sure.**

>Maybe later.

> Thank you.
> 
> I know this must be rough.
> 
> Rest assured that I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think it was necessary.
> 
> Well, I’ll see you then.

 

Like Makoto requested, you called in all the members of the Phantom Thieves for a meeting that evening. Everyone that showed up was visibly exhausted and sore. Haru and Ann are making half-hearted small talk on the couch, with Morgana curled up in Ann’s lap. Futaba is half asleep perched on her chair, and you notice Yusuke wincing a bit whenever he has to put weight on his left leg. The mood is abnormally somber for what should have been a triumph—after all, the Phantom Thieves have taken down their most dangerous enemy yet. In a few weeks, Masayoshi Shido would confess to every single crime he’d ever committed on the eve of what could have been his greatest victory. Your teammates should have been planning a celebration right now.

Haru and Ann’s conversation peter out. Silence weighs on the room.

The downstairs door opens, the doorbell chiming softly.

 “Sorry I’m late, everyone. Is everybody else here?” Makoto calls out as she walks briskly up the stairs. Her eyes roved over the other members of the Phantom Thieves, making sure that all six of them were present and accounted for. “That’s good. I asked Akira to call a meeting today because there’s something we need to talk about. But it’s not something I’m comfortable talking about or even really mentioning over the phone, so that’s why you all are here today.”

“Mhghf. Just get to the point and tell us what we’re here for already.” Futaba grumbles, slightly muffled by her knees.

Makoto nods. “Right. Well, I’ll be blunt then.”

She pauses to compose herself and you can’t help but to lean in slightly. You’re curious about what all of this is about too.

“I spoke to my sister last night about… about what had happened. She’s busy with the death of her boss and the fallout of Akira’s escape, but I was able to at least tell her some of what happened last night. And there’s a point that she made which I think we all need to consider.” Makoto takes a deep breath, like she’s trying to steel herself for the inevitable reaction to what she’s going to say, and she faces the rest of the team. “We can’t tell Ryuji’s mom anything.”

A second of utter silence, and—

Ann slams her hands down on the table and everything starts happening all at once, a rising tide of hurt and confusion that you don’t participate in because you’re frozen in shock.

His mom.

You didn’t even _think_ about how his mom was feeling. After last night—after stumbling out of the Metaverse right outside of the Diet building, searching the area desperately because surely there had been some mistake, a trick of the eyes, surely Ryuji wasn’t _actually_ gone—you’d just been reeling from the quietly awful ache in your heart. And if you, who had known him for less than a year, felt this way… what would Ryuji’s mom be thinking, after Ryuji failed to come home yesterday?

Makoto has one hand up and raises her voice to be heard, and you focus back in on the conversation. “Everyone! Please. Before any of you say anything, please hear me out.” She bites her lip and closes her eyes. “Truth be told, I’m not very comfortable with this either. However, my sister made some very good points that I can’t fully refute.”

“First of all,” she starts, “we don’t know any of the details of the corruption Shido’s been orchestrating. How many assemblymen are in his pocket? How many unscrupulous connections does he have?”

“I can find out!” volunteers Futaba, already tapping away at her phone.

“I don’t doubt your abilities.” Makoto reassures her. “However, we have to ask: what are they going to do after Shido has his change of heart? _He_ may be willing to confess to everything afterwards, but you can be sure that a lot of his lackeys and co-conspirators will fight tooth and nail to stay out of jail. They’ll be grasping for anything that they can use to weasel their way out of a conviction. If we tell Sakamoto-san anything about what happened, the nature of the calling card that we sent out means that there’s no way she won’t make the connection between what we tell her and Shido… then there’s a significant risk of her telling the police. The incredibly corrupt police. And if his people catch wind of it, then you can be sure that Shido’s men will take the opportunity to raise a huge media storm over it. It’s not as if it’s a secret that we’re friends with Ryuji. How long will it take for them to use their common sense and come after us?”

“But, the Metaverse—“Morgana interrupts, only to be cut off by Makoto shaking her head.

“They know about the Metaverse, remember? They sent a squad of police in there to capture Akira.” Your bruises—still not completely faded—twinge at the memory.

“Additionally,” Makoto continues, “why should she believe us at all? The Metaverse, Palaces, Shadows… it’s a farfetched story considering that she probably didn’t have a connection any of this to begin with. She doesn’t know any of us. She has no reason to believe what we’re saying. It’s far more reasonable for her to believe that we’re feeding her a pretty lie, which would make want know the full truth even more.”

“Well…” Haru wonders, “why can’t we just talk to his mother later? After Shido’s gone to trial, wouldn’t it be alright to tell her what happened?”

Yusuke nods. “While it’s not ideal in the slightest, I suppose it would be better late than never.”

Makoto sighs. “There’s still very little chance of her actually believing in us. Sis said that it could take literally years for the investigation to conclude—especially after taking the time they’ll have to spend fixing corrupt system into account. And after investigations will come the trials, which I imagine will also drag on. By the time everything is over… what if she’s already come to terms with Ryuji’s disappearance? It might do her more harm than good to tell her what really happened.”

“Essentially,” Makoto concludes, “we can’t predict what Shido’s people will do. We can’t predict what Sakamoto-san will do. Therefore, Sis recommends that we lay low and keep quiet… even if it doesn’t feel like the right thing to do.”

The room is silent for a minute. It’s Ann that breaks the silence. “Okay. I get what you’re saying, but… I still can’t agree to keep his mother in the dark like this. Like, Ryuji and his mom are incredibly close, you know? He loves—he loved her. And I can’t imagine how much she’s worrying right now. I mean, if it’s a matter of gaining her trust or something, can’t we just take her into the Metaverse or something? She’d have to believe us if we did that!”

Yusuke speaks up, brow furrowed. “She might believe us about how he died, yes. However, might she not still blame us for his death? It wouldn’t even be an inaccurate supposition—if it were not for our need to escape the Palace, Ryuji would not have been placed in such a perilous position. In that sense, it would be perfectly reasonable for her to blame us for what happened.”

“It’s not our fault he’s dead!” Futaba’s retort is swift and angry. “We didn’t force him to go or anything—we didn’t kill him! And if it’s anyone’s fault, it’s Shido’s! If it wasn’t for his stupid boat Palace and his stupid everything, then _nobody_ would be dead! Not Ryuji, or my mom, or Akechi or anyone else! He’s the one that has to pay!”

Morgana nods. “I think Oracle makes a fair point. What if we’re getting too complicated here? The problem with telling Ryuji’s mom is that we’re worried she’ll react badly and tell other people about us, right? So what if we just go after Shido’s lackeys? If we take his organization down fast enough, we don’t need to worry. We know how the Metaverse works better than any of them. We should play to our advantages.”

Futaba brightens up and starts typing away even faster. “I can get their names right now, and then we’ll just have to go after them one by one. We can do it!” …Wait, has she—you take a peek over her shoulder. Good heavens, she’s already got the beginnings of a list on her smartphone. You’re so busy trying to make sense of what she’s doing that you miss the beginning of Haru’s interjection.

“—not sure that that’s possible, Futaba-chan. Even if we know the identities of everyone involved, we’d also have to find out the other two keywords as well, don’t we? And the sheer number of people… even people only tangentially involved in this business, like my father, had palaces. So we would most likely be looking at tens of dozens of palaces. Trying to go through all of them would be brutal.” She sighs. “If only we could _change the cognition of everyone at once_.”

(!?)

Something about Haru’s last statement draws your attention. _Everyone’s cognition…_ But the conversation is already moving on, so you put it out of your mind. You’ll figure it out later.

“Guys, we’re getting off topic here. It doesn’t look like it’ll be possible for us to do anything to make sure that Shido gets what’s coming to him, and I guess we have no good options but to trust Makoto’s sister and the legal system. So do we tell Ryuji’s mom or not?” Ann asks.

“Tell her.” Futaba says, bluntly. “She needs to know who’s really responsible.”

Yusuke nods. “I agree with Futaba—she should know the truth.”

“I don’t know…” Morgana sounds uncertain. “If telling her might lead to Shido’s people escaping justice, I don’t think we should do it.”

Ann frowns. “Well, I don’t like the thought of just letting Ryuji’s mom think he ran away or got himself killed in an alley somewhere, though. It’s just not fair to either of them.”

“I think it might be for the best if we at the very least wait a few months.” Haru hesitates, and adds, “I don’t like the thought of keeping this a secret forever. However, for the sake of ensuring that Shido’s organization is eradicated… if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.”

“I trust my sister,” Makoto states. “If she thinks that we should keep quiet—well, she knows how the system works better than any of us.”

You tally it up in your head. Three votes for, three against. Which means…

“It seems that we are split evenly on this issue,” Yusuke states quietly. “Hm. I propose we let our leader’s vote decide. Just like we usually do.”

Ann nods. “I’m alright with that. Akira’s never let us down before.”

“I feel the same way as well.” Makoto says. “Then, if the rest of us think that it’s alright—“

She looks around the room. Everyone is nodding assent.

She turns to you. They all do. “Well? Akira, what should we do?”

 

>We can’t say anything.

>We have to tell her.

> We’re missing something.

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I love my burglary babies and if any of them die I might cry  
> Also Me: atlus u cowards let the bodies hit the floor  
> Inspiration for this fic! A line from obstinaterixatrix’s wonderful fic A Fox out a Forest where it was mentioned that if Ryuji had died in the Metaverse _his mom wouldn't know anything_ which, ow. This is an idea I've been toying with for a long, long time. I'm just very interested in the consequences of what Ryuji's death (or Akechi's, in canon) would be on the PT/world at large and i was ROBBED. ROBBED, I TELL YOU!  
>  Ive got… a potential continuation for this fic. Considering the content of this one, it might not be a POV most ppl are expecting, hahaha! Don’t get your hopes up, mind you, but its def something that I want to write if I think I can pull it off.  
> (By the way, which option would you pick if this actually happened in-game? Just curious!)


End file.
